Northamptonshire Council Going Bust

[bainbrig]

Another example of lily-livered *** not standing up to a bullying government (actually it was Thatcher and her rate-capping that started it).

I’d bet the people of Northamptonshire would gladly pay a pound or two a week extra and maintain their services, but no, the council officials kow-tow to this pernicious legislation.

Stand up!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-45030182


BB

[ummmm]

You really need to stop wetting yourself, TTT.

[Togo]

I obviously have no "first hand" knowledge about the area, but have seen reports regarding the likely demise over the last few years. I note that there is a nice new shiny £50million suite of offices in a prime location recently built. Let me guess, at the planning and consultation stages the council would have been promising that it would be partly funded by selling off the various other buildings that housed the staff and the increased efficiencies and energy saved would pay for the shortfall in a blink of an eye. But, like up here in N.Wales, all the "negotiations" to get the other building off the council's books mysteriously fall through at the last minute and are quietly buried leaving the council with a massive property portfolio. The next development is that all the senior managers and administrators re-occupy(if they ever left) the old buildings after refurbishment removing themselves from the boring, demeaning and mundane thing called actual work to live a life of leisure and exclusivity in the grand old "character" buildings as befitting the self regard and unwarranted high opinion of themselves. Now we have a poster disingenuously linking the debacle to the leave voters in the Brexit referendum. I can play that game too, and come up with a far more accurate analogy. I would liken the council performance to be very Brussels like, including the lofty, high handed disdain for the rate payers of Northamptonshire. Their mistake is that unlike Brussels they cannot hide the "real" books and award themselves budget increases to cover their criminal inefficiencies or avoid accountability.

[mushroom25]

// And the stupid new bus station that has mucked up the town centre.//

....not to mention the gross mismanagement of its predecessor, in particular Greyfriars House (which sat on top) which was one endless succession of financial goofs which cost the council millions.....

[bainbrig]

Sometimes I think the British Public deserves all it gets. (Apologies to all those of the BP to whom this doesn't apply.)

If you WANT public services, hospitals, roads, a decent police force, libraries, schools, and so on and on, you have to PAY for them.

Once upon a time there were local Rates. We paid our money, and got our infrastructure. Then 'your' Thatcher came along and stopped local authorities raising money (effectively), and since then everything's gone down the pan.

Then a few years ago the barrow-boy bankers stole too much money, and we (the British Public), had to bail them out. (Why? Don't ask me why.)

So now we have Austerity. (Oh yea?) And while the rich cats get richer, the poor British Public see even more of their services going right down the pan.

Who to blame? The bankers? Successive governments of both hues?

No, of course not. Let's blame the (fill in your own favourite enemy here) ................................ instead.

I despair, I really do.

B

[ToraToraTora]

"If you WANT public services, hospitals, roads, a decent police force, libraries, schools, and so on and on, you have to PAY for them. " - correct but funding is only part of it. What the public purse needs is efficiency. Just throwing money at it just funds the people you hate. Local authorities are notorious for self important busy bodies empire building and wasting public money on crackpot schemes. I'd like to see that money more wisely used.

[ummmm]

Mushroom...never really knew what was above the bus station. Now the twonks are talking about putting a cinema in the bulldozed site. Plus the old Chron & Echo site might become an Aldi...

We don't need another cinema and we certainly don't need another Aldi.

[jno]

am I right in thinking the council refused to put up the council tax for years? Hardly a surprise if they then run out of money. You may be right that people would gladly pay more in return for basic services, but if the council doesn't give them the option...

[Old_Geezer]

Well Zacs, I don't see your precious EU foreign elite preventing it while we're still in. So clearly better to remove that layer of interference and get onto the task of sorting national and local problems ourselves.

[-Talbot-]

I normally ignore Zacs Brexit ramblings but I can't ignore this is


LOL lol
Desperate.

[Old_Geezer]

Thatcher's effect is still with us, whether this had anything to do with it or not. It's not going to have dissipated in one lifetime.

[gness]

Jno...that wasn't why they ran out of money......google NBC loan to Sixfields for one reason....and it's not the only......"mistake".

So no, people won't be happy to pay more.
If this was just one of the ways in which your money had been used would you be happy to say....
Darn, you're going broke....I'd better up my contribution to you then?

[naomi24]

//Then 'your' Thatcher came along and stopped local authorities raising money (effectively), and since then everything's gone down the pan.//

I’m not sure it’s entirely fair to go back years in search of a reason but we have a Conservative council – always have had – and it does very well indeed. Refuse services work well, parks are well tended, libraries thriving, streets are cleaned. I know nothing about Northampton but listening to the people here who do know something about it I get the impression that the failure results from its own abysmal mismanagement.

[-Talbot-]

Plus the old Chron & Echo site might become an Aldi...



Don't be daft, ummmm. All the Aldis will shut after Brexit.

[bainbrig]

//we have a Conservative council//
So do the people of Northamptonshire.

[naomi24]

Yes, and that endorses the point I'm making. Our bunch are doing it properly - theirs isn't. Regardless of politics, Northampton's council is incompetent.

[gness]

Exactly, Naomi......and much more than abysmal mismanagement.

Folk might want to have a read of what has being going on in Northampton before trying to score points.

[bainbrig]

jno. Try Wikipedia on 'rate capping'.

Essentially, as far as I remember, Thatcher and her gang were attacking the many left-wing local councils which wanted to spend money on services and raise it by increasing their 'rates'. Thatcher's government came up with the scheme which made it illegal for local councils to raise rates over a certain government-determined level.

Although this has been modified a bit over the years, the essence is still true. Local authorities CAN'T simply raise (and thus SPEND) money from the rates. They have to go to central government for handouts, which might (or more often might not) be forthcoming.

Local democracy has been smashed, or at the very least limited, by this. Plus of course you get the sort of idiots prevalent in these columns who wouldn't pay a penny more for anything, and who now have a good excuse for not participating in local elections, as councils are less and less effective.

BB

[ummmm]

It all depends on where you live in Northants. Sad but true. The people living further out from the town centre are neglected.

I don't know what it's like in Kettering, Wellingborough etc.

[gness]

Bainbrig. I am far from an idiot. I'm happy to contribute for services. I am not happy to have my contributions abused and stolen.

I ask you again. Have you read what Northampton has done with our money? Do you approve of that and if you lived here would you happily give them more?

[ummmm]

Gness...wasn't it 10 million? And sixfields has been built on a landfill site.